Sarah, We’re Home!

[Alex Coleman]

So begins a brand new phase of The Intentional Mouse Trip Reports! Being that we have officially settled in sunny, beautiful Southern California, we will be soaking up every magnificent drop of the Disneyland Resort! A Disneyland trip report is very different than a Walt Disney World trip report. This presented me with a slight challenge: how do we keep sharing our adventures, even though these aren’t individual trips?

What I have landed on are monthly trip reports. I think this gives us the chance to still update you all about our goings-on and to keep reviewing all the glorious wonders that are held within the roughly 500 square acres of the DLR.

The interesting fact about Sarah and I as DLR Annual Passholders is that we tend to go to the resort regularly, but we do not stay very long. We tend to either go very early in the morning for rope drop and then stay until it gets busy (side note: this seems to be earlier and earlier every year we go) or we go for dinner and the nighttime spectaculars.

So as you read these reports you may wonder why we do so little every visit. The simple answer is that we have lost the desire or ability to wait in lines. We go often enough that we feel like we don’t need to. We tend to experience a few attractions, get bored of it being crowded, and then leave.

In this report I will cover our 8 visits to the DLR during the month of January. I will explain the process of us purchasing our AP’s and visiting on New Year’s Day. I will give you a step-by-step look at each one of our visits. I will also give a quick review of the restaurants at which we dined. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of pictures to go along with this report; I can’t help myself!

We had a great time and I am excited to share all of our adventures with you! This trip report will have several parts, so stay tuned. Click the links below for each part of the report.

• Part 1: Wait, We Can Go In?!
• Part 2: I Cannot Believe We Liked It!
• Part 3: Bottomless Whipped Cream and Riding Solo
• Part 4: Mmm Mexican Food

 

[Alex Coleman]

Wait, We Can Go In?!


This is the first installment of our January 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I will explain our exciting and surprising first two days in the parks. We were back and so happy! Part 2 chronicles our first really heavy touring day at the Disneyland Resort. We walked every available foot Disney’s California Adventure. In Part 3, we ate a lot of ice cream and I went to Disneyland by myself for the first time in my 26 years of life! In Part 4, we will cover three different days of touring. Read on and enjoy!

January 1st
WE ARE BACK! As of January 1, 2018, Sarah and I were Southern California residents again. The crazy journey back to our home was finally complete. The U-Haul was unpacked. Our temporary home in our friend’s guest house was organized. It was time to get serious about what is important in life, Disney Parks touring!

Fortunately, our friends and family know us insanely well. We received a handful of Disney gift cards over the space of transitioning out of our jobs and the Holiday Season. We drove down the 57 freeway towards Anaheim armed with plenty of gift cards to go towards our investment. Sarah dumped me out of the car in the guest drop off zone on Harbor Boulevard and I told her to take a slow lap around the property to give me time to renew our AP’s.

I entered through the Security lines and approached an unusually short Guest Services queue. After a very short wait, I approached the window and started speaking with the Cast Member. This process was only held up by attempting to change Sarah’s last name on her passport. I couldn’t believe that her maiden name was still in their system. The CM asked her supervisor and they both approved this process without Sarah being present. Hot tip..?: if you are looking to do anything with Guest Services, have all the necessary people there. At the end of the process, she handed me a voucher and said, “enjoy your day in the parks!”



This slightly surprised me so much I could only respond, “Wait, we can go in?!” She laughed as she responded that we could. I was not planning on even going into the parks because it was a holiday and our Deluxe passes were not valid. I clearly should have done my research. If we would have known, we would have gone to Disneyland for New Year’s Eve. Actual hot tip: if you want to get an extra day out of your AP, purchase it on a day that you are blocked out.

I called Sarah frantically as soon as I recovered from my state of shock. I told her to park in the Downtown Disney lot and then we would leave to park in the Mickey and Friends Parking Lot with our AP.

Sarah and I sprint-walked to the Happiest Place on Earth because we could not contain ourselves. We arrived at the front gates, Sarah got her picture taken, and we entered into Disneyland. No matter how many times I enter these gates, the feeling never changes. I get so excited seeing the train station and walking through the tunnel. The feeling cannot be beaten!



Sarah and I skirted the unexpectedly small holiday crowds and walked towards Sleeping Beauty Castle. Unfortunately, we encountered walls around a large portion of the central Hub (more on that to come!). We walked towards the Royal Theatre and were highly entertained by the retelling of Beauty and the Beast. It was silly, but fun.

We slipped past the assembled crowd and through the gateway to Frontierland. I got the chance to choose our next attraction and I chose Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I like this ride at Disneyland because the wait is normally shorter and the ride adds some fun projection mapping special effects. The queue is not as exciting, but it is still a quality attraction.

After we exited the ride, Sarah allowed me to choose the attraction again! I decided that Haunted Mansion would be a good idea. Sarah and I both love the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay and this would be our last chance to see it during this season. Again, we waited an unusually short amount of time and took our ghostly tour of the mansion.

By the time we were done with Haunted Mansion, it was definitely time for Sarah to choose the attraction. Sarah chose to journey into the Hundred Acre Wood with Pooh Bear and all his friends. This ride is an interesting case study in attraction location. At Disney World, the wait is normally very long. At Disneyland, it is rarely longer than 10 minutes. I think the location (it is centrally located in Fantasyland at WDW and it is back in the corner in Critter Country at Disneyland) dictates how long the wait is. The queue is fun and interactive at WDW, but the attraction itself is very similar. I think that people may honestly choose to ride this attraction because it gives their young children something to do for a half an hour. The queue is free babysitting!



We were both exhausted from bouncing through the Hundred Acre Wood (we started to see the crowds moving in for the afternoon rush) so we decided to call it. Sarah and I jumped onto the Disneyland Railroad in New Orleans Square and took a partial trip around Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom. We exited the train after saying hello to the primeval world (oh how we missed those dinosaurs!) and walked through Downtown Disney back to the parking structure. We were so happy to be back!

January 2nd


Sarah and I liked our time at the parks so much, we decided to go back the next day! Why not, you know?! We entered the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure in the afternoon Tuesday and decided to take a slow tour of Disney’s California Adventure. Whenever we have to decide between taking the tram and walking through Downtown Disney we choose to walk. I am sure that it is faster to take the tram, but it feels like we make more progress when we walk.

This process is slightly more complicated now that Disneyland is undergoing construction and because they have changed their Security approach. Before we left three years ago, the bag checks were in between Downtown Disney and the front gates. Now the checks are either at the M&F Parking Structure or before you enter DD. We used to walk past the tram stop, along Disneyland Drive, and then take a slight left to walk between the tram route and DD.

That route is currently not available. This makes the walk longer and Security at Downtown Disney is slightly less predictable. Sometimes there is one queue open and it takes 10 minutes, sometimes there are multiple queues open and it takes 10 seconds. It depends on the time of day and how efficient the process is.

Once we got through Security and entered the park, we took a lap of the park and I snapped pictures as we went. I really wanted to focus on Paradise Pier (RIP) since it would be closing for several months. We walked along the pier and I got several pictures of California Screamin’ as it took off. I really like these photos with the motion of the ride vehicle. The beautiful Southern California sunset didn’t hurt!



The first actual stop on our tour was at the Hyperion Theater for the new (to us) Frozen musical. Sarah and I had mixed feelings when we heard that Frozen would be replacing Aladdin in the Hyperion Theater. We both agreed that Aladdin needed to be retired. The show had been there for as long as we had been Annual Passholders. But, I think we were both suffering from Frozen overdose at the point that it was announced.



In the end, the show was good. The cast did a great job and the sets were immaculate. I thought the fact that they stuck to the original film was both a positive and a negative. I felt like they did a good job of honoring the cash cow (I mean film). But, I think they could have added a new song to freshen up the performance. Honestly, I was most disappointed by the people sitting next to us. The woman to my left was on her phone almost the entire time. The only time she took a break from her screen (which was at full brightness) was to bump into me as she danced to “Let it Go”.

After we were done with the show, we headed to our happy place. Sarah and I are both unashamedly in love with the Animation Academy building. This does not mean that we are closet Disney animators who love to draw Mickey and the gang, but we love the lobby. Almost every one of 300 previous visits to Disneyland and California Adventure included a lunch break in this space. It has everything: classic Disney animation, classic Disney music, and Crush loudly interrupting our nostalgia.



After we finished both the entire presentation and our dinner, Sarah and I sang our way to and through Little Mermaid - Ariel’s Undersea Adventure. This has been another staple of our Disneyland Resort visits. Sarah loves the attraction and we rarely go to DCA without going under the sea.

Our visit to Ariel’s undersea world concluded and we were presented with a conundrum. We really wanted to stay and see World of Color, but we had about 2 hours to kill. We weighed our options and decided to just see WoC another day. To be fair, this is usually the way it works for Sarah and I.

We went and sat in the lobby of Disney’s Grand Californian Resort & Spa for a while. We found a spot next to the massive fireplace and sat comfortably until I was bored. As regular readers of The Intentional Mouse may know, this does not take very long. Sarah and I exited the lobby and headed for Downtown Disney again. We went through another Security line as we moved from the resort to the shopping district. Hot tip: if you want to cut through the GC, you may want to reconsider because of the Security. We walked away from the resort and headed home.

 

[Alex Coleman]

I Can't Believe We Liked It!


This is the second installment of our January 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I explained our exciting and surprising first two days in the parks. We were back and so happy! Part 2 chronicles our first really heavy touring day at the Disneyland Resort. We walked every available foot Disney’s California Adventure. In Part 3, we ate a lot of ice cream and I went to Disneyland by myself for the first time in my 26 years of life! In Part 4, we will cover three different days of touring. Read on and enjoy!

January 13th
After Sarah’s first full week of work and my first full week of changing everything in our lives back to the State of California (thanks a lot for the DMV fees, CA!), we were ready to be back in our happy place. We decided to spend the weekend in the parks. I was starting my job on Monday, so it was the last job-free visit! We got up early and I took a picture of the beautiful California sunrise.



After we drove the hour to the park and found our parking spot, we walked through Downtown Disney to Disney’s California Adventure. I wanted to take pictures of Buena Vista Street in the morning sun, so Sarah sacrificed herself as the rope drop placeholder. All in all, I think we were both rewarded for her admirable sacrifice!



I joined Sarah in the mob that was assembling to run (I mean walk) to Radiator Springs Racers. While we were all assembled we were kept entertained by a wonderful Cast Member who was playing Disney Trivia. After she was done, they officially opened the park and the mass moved quickly towards Radiator Springs. We ended up being the second group to arrive at Racers. Sarah and I would have been the first, but there were several runners, SHAME!



We drove through the sleepy town and then embarked upon our most glorious race. We ended up losing, but I did get some good dark ride pictures so I think that is a win on balance.



After the race concluded, we walked towards Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! I have to be honest, I was not a huge fan of this attraction when it was announced or completed. I had a deep emotional (ok so that may be a bit dramatic) bond with Hollywood Tower of Terror in that spot. It seemed to fit so seamlessly. Mission: Breakout! does not.



Somewhat annoyingly, Sarah and I both looked at each other as we exited the attraction and agreed that we loved it. We really wanted to hate it. We wanted to write it off as Disney trying to push the superhero agenda and we wanted to scoff at its failure. But the ride is so fun. The ride is like really, really fun. Darn you talking raccoon and lovable band of misfits!

We were very conflicted as we trudged towards Paradise Pier. Sarah needed to go to the restroom so we stopped in A Bug’s Land. I am very curious as to the fate of this area. It seems like it may be a casualty of the Marvel area that is coming to DCA. For reasons I don’t really understand, I think I would miss Bug’s Land. Other than riding the Chew Chew Train once when it was insanely busy, I don’t think I have actually enjoyed any of the attractions. Do you think we will be saying “Bye.” to Bug’s Land? Let us know in the comments!



After grabbing a Fastpass for Toy Story Midway Mania!, we decided to wait for Soarin’ in the standby line. This was something we have rarely done in California or Florida. We almost always just get a Fastpass. The wait was not terrible and we had an hour to kill before we needed to be back at Toy Story so we went for it.

We still had a decent amount of time to kill before we could ride Toy Story so we sauntered back around Grizzly Peak. I really love this area. Sarah and I both love how quiet and tranquil the walk can be. I could just sit and soak in the silence. As we did, I took pictures!



We emerged back into the busy-ness of DCA with 15 minutes before our Fastpass reservation. Sarah had not yet gone under the sea, so we both hopped in line. This ride will be our forever “must-do”. Sarah could be happy if she spent her entire life riding around and around in a never ending circle of mermaid.

By the end, we were finally ready to go head-to-head in a showdown of epic proportion. This was Coleman vs. Coleman in heavyweight smackdown. We were back in our home arena and ready to do battle. Of course, Sarah dominated me. I actually do not think I have won a single game of Toy Story since I took this ill-fated picture of Sarah being dejected after losing during our October 2016 trip to Disney World.



Sarah marched victoriously away from Paradise Pier and we moved on towards Hollywood Land. We randomly decided that Monsters Inc. Mike & Sully to the Rescue! would be fun. I don’t think we had experienced this attraction since Roz became enamored with me several years ago. We were riding in the back seat when we got to the end of the attraction and she called me out for being “So handsome!” Life goal: COMPLETE!



I was still happy with the attraction, even though I have clearly lost favor in Roz’s eyes. She didn’t call me out this time! Our love was a lie all this time! Even though I was downtrodden, I recovered by soaking in the wonder of the Animation Academy Building. Sarah and I watched the full cycle before exiting the park.



We were both hungry from a full morning of touring so it was time for the greatest food of all time. For several years Sarah and I have sworn by the nachos at the Taqueria at Tortilla Jo’s. Even though there may not be very much spectacular about theme park nachos, these have always been our favorite meal at the Disneyland Resort. They load a crazy amount of food onto these nachos and they are fairly reasonable. Sarah and I usually split the nachos and we leave fully and happy for $11 with a drink. If you haven’t had these nachos, you should get them!



We were amazingly full as we walked the rest of Downtown Disney. I was not ready to sit in a car on a full stomach so we explored the Disneyland Hotel. We walked through the gardens and we stopped in the gift shop to buy a car decal. I really like this hotel, we will just need to inherit a serious amount of money so we can stay there!



We finished our day by walking the parking structure. Goodbye for now Disneyland!

 

[Alex Coleman]

Bottomless Whipped Cream and Riding Solo


This is the third installment of our January 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I explained our exciting and surprising first two days in the parks. We were back and so happy! Part 2 chronicled our first really heavy touring day at the Disneyland Resort. We walked every available foot Disney’s California Adventure. In Part 3, we ate a lot of ice cream and I went to Disneyland by myself for the first time in my 26 years of life! In Part 4, we will cover three different days of touring. Read on and enjoy!

January 14th
Sarah and I decided to wait until the evening the next day to go back to Disney’s California Adventure. We had gotten a couple of daytime visits full of attractions under our belts so now it was time to go for the nighttime spectaculars. Sarah and I arrived at the Mickey and Friends Parking Lot after sunset and we were ready to take the parks by storm.



We decided to start our evening at Disneyland and we were sad to see that the holiday decorations had officially been removed. The January hangover officially begun. The other major inconvenience was that half of Main Street, USA was behind 8-foot walls. Refurbishment of the street car tracks was long overdue, Sarah have both been on the receiving end of some nasty falls when we stepped in the track. I cannot imagine being a parade performer and dancing over the tracks. However, it was still sad and claustrophobic to see the walls up.

The only thing on the checklist for Disneyland that night was the stage show Mickey and the Magical Map. Sarah and I are both suckers for a stage show with songs from non-Frozen (still not over the Disney Parks overdose on Frozen) Disney animated films. We both really enjoy this show. The music and dancing are good and the sets are interesting. My only complaint is that the animation on the stage could be better. Regardless of this, we sang and danced along and were very content.



We considered trying to ride an attraction, but the crowds were pretty heavy so we decided to just go directly to California Adventure for World of Color. But before we get to the show, we needed ice cream. We walked down Buena Vista Street and I stopped at Clarabelle’s Hand-Scooped Ice Cream. I am incapable of waiting for shows and reserving seats, but Sarah is more than happy to sit and claim our spot. Sarah took off and I waited in the abnormally large crowd for our sweet treat.



I ordered the Chocolate Chip Cookie Hot Fudge Sundae in a Souvenir "Kitchen Sink". I have to say that I was not overly impressed. The ice cream was fine, but there were some negatives. My first and main problem with sundaes from Disney restaurants is that they drown them with whipped cream. The second problem is that they are massively expensive. I know that it came in an interesting container, but I cannot understand how they can charge almost $14 for ice cream and cookies with hot fudge. It is probably because people like Sarah and I will buy them!



I took our monstrocity to Paradise Pier and we got about halfway through when we ran out of ice cream and were left with a lake of soupy whipped cream. This was fine with us because we were incredibly full. We inched closer as the show started and sang and quoted along with the show. My only disappointment since we watched the show last was that they removed the Brave scene. We both really love the music from that movie and we were sad that they removed that section of World of Color. Overall, though, still a great show!



We walked through Radiator Springs on our way out of the parks. I took pictures as we walked, which was fairly difficult because it was incredibly busy for a Sunday night in January.

January 17th


This night was a first for me: a night by myself at Disneyland! Before I became okay with owning my introverted side, I would have scoffed at the idea of going to Disneyland by myself. I would look down upon the people who would approach the Cast Member at the front of the ride queue and respond “One” to their size of their group.

Let me say this now, going to Disneyland alone can be a very rewarding experience! The parks look completely different to me when my only traveling partner is my camera bag. I have to recognize that photography can be an incredibly dull pursuit to your traveling companion as a theme park photographer and happily married man. For me, this opens up the opportunity to take as much time for my pictures as possible. (Obligatory note to make sure I remain happily married) Would I prefer to be with Sarah, of course!

It was busier than I expected it to be at Disneyland. I walked down the walled Main Street and I dodged through traffic. I grabbed a Fastpass for Indiana Jones Adventure as I walked towards Frontierland and entered the queue for Big Thunder Mountain. The wait was longer than I expected, but I got to the front of the queue fairly quickly. I took a picture of the train before mine leaving the loading area before I took the wildest ride in the wilderness.



I walked to Toontown next. This is an area that does not draw Sarah and I very often. We do not have kids and so the attractions there do not excite us very much. Sarah also does not enjoy spinning rides so that leaves out Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. I was happy to find it almost deserted. I walked and took pictures.



After I was done in Toontown, I walked around the edge of the park towards Tomorrowland. I was captivated by the view of the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage with Tomorrowland in the background. I dangerously held my camera against the rocks and prayed that it did not slip out of my hands and drop it into the lake. Dangerous!



I was incredibly hungry after this close brush with camera death. Clam chowder in a bread bowl sounded just wonderful. I walked over to New Orleans Square for Royal Street Veranda. It makes me laugh when I think about this dining location and how our perception of it has changed. When Sarah and I were broke college students, we would share a soup in a bread bowl and that would be a special treat. Now that we aren't entirely as poor, it is just a good solid meal. Still would probably split it, though!



The next step was Indian Jones for my ride through the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. I didn’t look into the eyes of Mara, but someone must have. We headed through the Gates of Doom and Indiana Jones helped us barely escape with our lives. I was so happy with about this that I decided to commemorate this with a picture of the temple.



By the time I was done it was just about time for Fantasmic! to start. I walked up and ducked under a rope for one of the Standby areas. While I was standing there, a college-aged girl punched me in the chest! To be fair, she didn’t mean it. She was dancing and I was walking, but it really hurt! She apologized profusely and ran away in shame.



After the show was done, I took a loop around Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Sarah and I remark upon how different it is to see this castle now that we have been to Walt Disney World. This is our “home castle” (I wish!), but it is very different to Cinderella’s Castle. Regardless, it is beautiful and fun to shoot. I took several pictures and I headed for the exit.



I was fully prepared to stay later, but I was really tired. My lack of dedication was slightly embarrassing, but I had work in the morning. I took what was left of my Disney pride back home with me and vowed to never do it again.

 

[Alex Coleman]

Mmm Mexican Food


This is the final installment of our January 2018 Disneyland Trip Report. In Part 1, I explained our exciting and surprising first two days in the parks. We were back and so happy! Part 2 chronicled our first really heavy touring day at the Disneyland Resort. We walked every available foot Disney’s California Adventure. In Part 3, we ate a lot of ice cream and I went to Disneyland by myself for the first time in my 26 years of life! In Part 4, we will cover three different days of touring. Read on and enjoy!

January 20th


Sarah and I got a really late start on this Saturday. We got up and decided that we wanted to stay in and make breakfast. This has broken our streak of rope dropping, but sometimes it is good to break routine! This was not that sometime. Hot tip..?: avoid Disney parks during the middle of the day on a Saturday.

This is usually something Sarah and I are better at with our planning process, but Disneyland feels accessible enough for us that we can just go for a couple of hours. This can lead to really great little trips, but can also lead to frustrating trips when we decide to break routine.

The only attractions that interest us at Disneyland are attractions that did not have long waits. This particular day, that meant Tarzan’s Treehouse, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Pirate’s Lair. Now I know what you are thinking, that day sounds epic! If that is your dream Disney parks day, you may be an Annual Passholder.

We started with Tarzan’s Treehouse. This has been a favorite attraction of ours since we were wee children in undergrad going to Disneyland. Sarah loves it because we can take selfies (that was back before selfies were cool! ). I now love it because I can take un-selfies (patent pending). We walked through the treehouse and took pictures.



After we were done we walked over to Critter Country and got in line for Pooh Bear. You know it is a busy day at the parks if there is a wait for this ride. We waited for roughly 20 minutes and we bounced around the Hundred Acre Wood. We were both surprised by the busy-ness in January so we headed to the one place where crowd size is almost irrelevant, Pirate’s Lair. Amazingly, we didn’t even get on the first ferry across the Rivers of America. Busy, busy, busy for January!



We wandered around the island and reminisced about the good old days when I had ridiculously long hair and wore cargo shorts all the time. Oh the innocence of youth!

After a short lap we exited the island and the parks. We were pretty done with dodging crowds.

January 24th


This Wednesday may set the record for shortest visit to Disneyland for Sarah and I. We both work until 4:30pm and Sarah needs to drive roughly 35 minutes to get to the Disneyland Resort. By the time she was able to park and get to Disneyland, it was basically 5:30pm. All the while, I was taking golden hour photos.



When Sarah arrived, it was dinner time! But before we could eat, we needed to get a Fastpass for Indiana Jones Adventure. Sarah had not experienced this attraction so it was necessary.



By the time we were done getting our Fastpasses, we were starving. Fortunately, we had Disney gift cards to spend! I believe we have conditioned our family and friends to now completely understand our gift desires. The gift that makes us happier than any other gift in the world is a Disney gift card (if you are looking to send us a gift, comment below! ).

We headed to Rancho Del Zocalo for some Mexican food. As you may have read from our Pecos Bill’s Restaurant Review, Sarah and I love Mexican food. I would say definitively that Zocalo is much better than Peco Bill’s. I ordered the Citrus-Fire Grilled Chicken and Sarah ordered the Carne Asada & Red Chile Enchilada Platter.



The chicken was just alright, pretty bland other than a few pockets of lime zest which exploded my pallet. But the enchiladas were great! The best part about both of these meals was that the portion size was fairly large. Sarah and I both agreed that RdZ will become a Coleman favorite.



After we were done we foolishly decided to ride Indiana Jones. We got through the Fastpass line with no issue, but once we got inside we found out the ride had just broken down. In that moment we played that game in our heads that every experienced park tourist has played. We decided whether it was worth our time to wait and see if the attraction would come back online. I decided 15 minutes would be our drop-dead leave time for Fantasmic!, so we waited and I took pictures.



Amazingly, the line started moving within 10 minutes. We moved along the queue and got to the point where it splits in two. Sarah and I have tried and tried and tried to figure out if there is some form of strategy as to whether to choose the right or the left side, but I am not sure that there is any strategy. Hot tip: pick a side and pray!

We exited the attraction in just enough time to get a good spot for the nighttime spectacular. Of course, my body decided it could not wait to need to go to the bathroom. I abandoned Sarah and went to the bathroom in New Orleans Square. Annoyingly, we chose a spot in the one area that was impossible to reach due to Disney’s traffic flow control. I had to walk all the way around French Market to turn around and walk across the bridge towards Indiana Jones to turn left to walk to our spot. I made it just in time to have to wriggle through a half-dozen people to get to Sarah.

This was Sarah’s first time watching Fantasmic! after it was updated. We were both amazed by the improvements. The new projections are unbelievable. I do not know how it is possible to get that level of clarity when you are projecting video onto water. I also like how they seem to have clarified the story with subtle changes to scenes involving the villains. Overall, it feels like an entirely different show.



After the show was done, Sarah and I walked towards and through Fantasyland. We stopped at Alice in Wonderland and took a quick journey down the rabbit hole. I am not sure the last time that Sarah and I experienced this attraction, but it must have been a while. It seemed like the improvements that were made since our last ride were significant. I think if the wait was not normally more than 20 minutes, we would add it to our regular list of attractions because it is just simple fun.



We wanted to go on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, but the wait was just long enough and we were just tired enough that we did not want to stand in line. Instead, we walked to the exit and went back home.

January 28th


This Sunday was the beginning of the end of Sarah and I being late night people. We both sat straight up in bed and looked at each other and realized that we were fully awake at 6:30am. Why had this tragedy befallen us?! We figured we would go to Disneyland since we were up. Amazingly, we were almost exactly on time for rope drop.

We walked directly on to Space Mountain which almost never happens. I find it hard to compare Space Mountain at Disneyland and WDW. The queue at WDW is more interactive, but Sarah and I have never waited in the standby line, so that hasn’t really mattered to us. The ride experience is very different, but I cannot say that one is better than the other. Sarah swears that the Disneyland version is more thrilling. Her scientific approach to coming to this conclusion is that the Disneyland version makes her eyes water. The one thing I appreciate about Disneyland’s version is that the ride vehicles have two seats per row.



After Space Mountain, we headed towards another Disneyland mountain. Big Thunder is still a regular because the wait is usually bearable. True to form, we basically walked directly on to this attraction as well. We blasted through the mines and returned to the loading area. Our ride was only slightly ruined by a particularly obnoxious family in front of us who screamed unnecessarily loudly the entire ride.

After our luck with two attraction wait times being short, we thought we would test our luck on Peter Pan’s Flight. This is an attraction that is unquestionably better at Disneyland than it is at the Magic Kingdom. The wait is normally 30-45 minutes, which is child’s play when compared to 60-90 minutes at MK. The ride was also refurbished more recently at Disneyland so it is significantly better. The Captain Hook in the MK version of the ride has like three different voices! One redeeming factor for the MK version is that it has Fastpass+ service, but Disneyland only has a standby queue.



We waited about 30 minutes and rode the attraction before finishing a half-circle tour of Fantasyland. We partook in Snow White’s Scary Adventure and Pinocchio’s Daring Journey. These rides are not normally on our list, but we had time so why not! I, personally, cannot believe that parents still expose their children to these attractions. I was (and somewhat still am) still terrified of aspects of these rides. However, I do respect that Disneyland has held on to these classic attractions. Also, if you enjoy them their wait times are short most of the time.



When we were done we walked slowly over to Indiana Jones Adventure to either use the standby queue or get a Fastpass. The wait for the standby queue was 15 minutes and the Fastpass was for 10 minutes from the time we arrived. I just decided to get a Fastpass. We killed 10 minutes and then returned to plunge deeply into the Temple of the Forbidden Eye.



Sarah really wanted to go shoot Zurg and his minions so we walked across the central hub and towards Fantasyland. We arrived to find that the wait was just slightly longer than we desired. Instead of waiting, we left.

Sarah and I headed home, but made a stop at Han’s Ice Cream at the Anaheim Packing District. We also explored the rest of Downtown Anaheim. This is not a place we explore very often, but it has expanded since the last time we were there several years ago. This is now a fun place to go for dinner or drinks. We will definitely go back soon!

Conclusion


That was our exciting January at the Disneyland Resort! We had an amazing time being back at our home park and experiencing Disney Parks in a very familiar way. I hope you had a great time reading these reports, we had a great time sharing them! If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave us a comment in the section below or head over to our About Us page and send us an email. We love chatting Disney with you! If you want to read through the rest of our Disney Parks adventures, head over to our Trip Reports page.